I don’t mean to say that most allegations should not be believed, nor do I wish to denigrate people’s pain. What I read in the New Yorker (the only detailed account I am aware of), is that the woman alleges she was held down, that Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth, and that “he attempted to force himself on her”. It doesn’t say how, it doesn’t say that any clothes were removed, it doesn’t say that he tried to rape her, it doesn’t say that she was
While it might be true, and it is worth investigating (not in public), the word rape is never used. Therefore, I stand by my statement, which is 100% accurate, that “there was no allegation of rape”.
Here is a purported transcript of the behaviour you are trying to split hairs over:
Kavanaugh physically pushed me into a bedroom as I was headed for a bathroom up a short stair well from the living room. They locked the door and played loud music precluding any successful attempt to yell for help.
Kavanaugh was on top of me while laughing with REDACTED, who periodically jumped onto Kavanaugh. They both laughed as Kavanaugh tried to disrobe me in their highly inebriated state. With Kavanaugh’s hand over my mouth I feared he may inadvertently kill me.
From across the room a very drunken REDACTED said mixed words to Kavanaugh ranging from “go for it” to “stop.”
At one point when REDACTED jumped onto the bed the weight on me was substantial. The pile toppled, and the two scrapped with each other. After a few attempts to get away, I was able to take this opportune moment to get up and run across to a hallway bathroom. I locked the bathroom door behind me. Both loudly stumbled down the stair well at which point other persons at the house were talking with them.
So again, is the important point here whether or not this was technically rape by whatever standard, or that this was a terrible, disgusting thing to do and whether or not it meets a technical definition, therefore, fucking irrelevant to the discussion about it?
